It was bound to happen sometime…and that sometime was Friday night!
All the streaks came to an end at Regina’s Brandt Centre…thankfully for the Moose Jaw Warriors and with a thud for the Saskatoon Blades. Boston Bilous made 29 saves for his fourth career W-H-L shutout and defencemen scored three of the Moose Jaw goals as the Warriors blanked the Bridge City Bunch 4-0. The win ended Moose Jaw’s winless skid at six games while the loss put the brakes to a seven-game winning streak for the Blue and Gold, a run of six consecutive head-to-head victories over Moose Jaw and was the first regulation loss for Saskatoon in 11 games in the East Division “Dubble.”
Cole Jordan, Denton Mateychuk and Lucas Brenton…the latter into an empty net…were the Warriors’ blue-liners to find the back of the Blades’ net while Riley Krane also connected for 5-6-1 Moose Jaw, who were out-shot 29-18. Several individual streaks for Bridge City Bunch players were ended by the shutout loss, including goaltender Nolan Maier’s personal seven-game winning streak between the pipes as he stopped 14 of 17 shots.
To say that Blue and Gold head coach Mitch Love wasn’t happy is severely understating the fact. His post-game media availability lasted for just three questions and 42 seconds in total. When asked how the game looked to his eyes, the third year Blades’ bench boss said, “We got out-worked.” The response to the second question about the play and ‘bounces’ not going Saskatoon’s way was, “When you get out-worked, you don’t create your own bounces. They out-worked us, they won the hockey game.” The last question was about what would be done during practice Saturday to get ready for Brandon on Sunday, Love’s reply was, “Go back to work.”
The 9-1-1 Blades meet the 8-2-1 Wheat Kings Sunday at 6 o’clock with the broadcast on 98-COOL at 5:30. Following is the official game summary from the W-H-L…
Moose Jaw Warriors 4 at Saskatoon Blades 0 – Status: Final
Friday, April 2, 2021 – Brandt Centre – Regina, SK
Moose Jaw 1 0 3 – 4
Saskatoon 0 0 0 – 0
1st Period-1, Moose Jaw, Jordan 2 (Alarie), 16:31. Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Ginnell Mj (tripping), 3:03; Firkus Mj (boarding), 14:07.
3rd Period-2, Moose Jaw, Mateychuk 1 1:17. 3, Moose Jaw, Krane 1 (King, Hunt), 12:09. 4, Moose Jaw, Brenton 1 17:16 (EN). Penalties-Dach Sas (interference), 3:35; Popple Mj (high sticking), 6:44; Niven Mj (tripping), 17:33.
Shots on Goal-Moose Jaw 8-1-9-18. Saskatoon 9-11-9-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Moose Jaw 0 / 1; Saskatoon 0 / 4.
Goalies-Moose Jaw, Bilous 4-2-0-0 (29 shots-29 saves). Saskatoon, Maier 7-1-0-0 (17 shots-14 saves).
A-
Referees-Cody Beach (76), Bryce Sebastian (64).
Linesmen-Tanner McGregor (55), Devan Thiessen (94).